How to explain the current political storm in China? Why Falun Gong issue is at the core? Grace Wollensak, Falun Dafa Association of Canada Speech at Information session hosted by Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong House of Commons, Ottawa, Canada April 25, 2012 Contrast in foreign visit because of different involvement in persecution of Falun Gong Last week, 2 prominent Chinese top leaders made foreign visits: One is Li ChangChun, the propaganda chief of the Communist party. He met with the Prime Minister and minister of foreign affairs of Canada. But he had to sneak into Canada and then sneak out, unannounced to media or public (according to the Globe and Mail 1 and Epoch Times 2 reports). Why was his trip so secretive? Because he tried to avoid facing protests and lawsuits, as he is one of the people who are deeply involved in persecution of Falun Gong and had been served with lawsuits previously during his visit to Ireland and in France. He is afraid as he should be. The other one is the premier Wen Jiabao, who has been cited as wanting to end the persecution of Falun Gong 3. He visited Iceland on the weekend and was greeted and welcomed by Falun Gong practitioners who called to bring Jiang Zemin and his gang to justice 4. 1 Globe and Mail, Harper quietly holds face-to-face talks with Chinese propoganda chief http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-quietly-holds-face-to-face-talks-with-chinese-p ropaganda-chief/article2409475/?utm_medium=feeds%3a%20rss%2fatom&utm_source=politics&utm_content=24 09475 2 Canadian Prime Minister Getting bad advice on China, former MP says http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/canada/pm-needs-help-on-china-file-says-former-mp-224501.html 3 Wen Jasbao Pushes for Redressing Falun Gong, Source Says http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/wen-jiabao-pushes-for-redressing-falun-gong-source-says-217246.html 4 Iceland Welcomes Both Wen Jiabao and Falun Gong http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/iceland-welcomes-both-wen-jiabao-and-falun-gong-225156.html, 1
[One main banner practitioners held read Bring to justice Jiang Zemin and his gang for persecuting Falun Gong. Another said simply Welcome Wen Jiabao. Both were in English and Chinese. ] This shows a really sharp distinction of how officials in China have handled Falun Gong. This example shows us that it is important to know about Falun Gong issue and its impact to many fronts, including the relationship between China and Canada. And obviously, the Canadian government has not known what was going on in China. We are not saying that Canada should pick political battles in China. The point is there are people in China who still care about basic humanity and still feel guilty that Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted. What Canada needs to do is to support those people s stance on Falun Gong and encourage them to do the right thing. They need that support. Our voice to support of justice now can make a huge impact on the future of China. How to explain the current political storm in China? Why Falun Gong is at the core? On February 6, the police chief in Chongqing city, Wang Lijun, attempted to defect to the US consulate, and sought political asylum. That triggered a political storm that has been going on in China which could have the effect of re-shaping China s future. Wang s boss, Bo Xilai, the party secretary of Chongqing city and member of the party politburo, was dismissed from that post in Chongqing city on March 15 and was removed all posts within the party on April 10 and is presently under investigation of serious violation of disciplines. World media have covered the oustering of Bo Xilai, who had tried hard to grab the 2
highest power and was once viewed as a rising political star. The focus of world media is also on Zhou Yongkang, the police chief of mainland China, who is believed to be deeply involved in Bo Xilai s case and a strong supporter of Bo, and is facing trouble too. There have been countless rumors and speculations, also puzzling and confusion on this Hollywood style saga showing in China. Few people know what is really going on and what is behind and under the surface reasoning. Actually, yesterday I read a media article citing a China expert saying, Bo Xilai case shows China pundits don t have a clue However, Mr. Zhang Tianliang, The Epoch Times Chief commentator, has written 40 articles after Wang Lijun case burst out since February, and all of his analysis and prediction turned out to be true so far. He explains that it s not that he is so smart that he is able to predict these issue in China, he believes that the reason why his prediction is so accurate is because he consider Falun Gong is at the most important parameter on this political earthquake in China. Actually, all the three people mentioned above, who have fell in this political storm or were implicated, were heavily involved in the persecution of Falun Gong. It may sound like boasting, but it is true that Falun Gong, which most people view as a human rights issue, is the most important defining issue for the current and future of China. No matter how much you know Falun Gong, but you must have noticed one fact, that Falun Gong is the only long lasting, peaceful and massive civil disobedience in Communist China s history. If we look back at the CCP s history, even the President or a Marshal could not survive for three days if the CCP wanted to beat them down. This makes Falun Gong a very special phenomenon. If the CCP failed to suppress Falun Gong completely, we must not neglect the role Falun Gong played. The important thing to remember is that even central authorities supported Falun Gong in the beginning. Falun Gong was awarded, endorsed and supported throughout China. The number of practitioners is between 70 to 100 million before the persecution according to Chinese government survey. As long as the society has a tiny mechanism to maintain justice, it is impossible to persecute so many people that are well-rooted in the society. In order to carry out the persecution, Jiang Zemin, former leader of the Communist party, decided to establish a new organization, the 610 Office, which was founded on 6/10/1999, a Gestapo type of organization to command all the persecution related issues. The first and foremost task of this 610 Office was to completely destroy China s justice system. 3
The whole country and all the resources are used to suppress Falun Gong. Because of Falun Gong practitioners perseverance and use of all the peaceful means against the persecution, Jiang was so outraged, and he escalated the torture and killing again and again, to the point that the persecution became a crime against humanity. Consequently, Falun Gong practitioners launched international lawsuits against dozens of high level Chinese officials for torture, genocide and crimes against humanity for their role in the persecution of Falun Gong. In 2007, when now disgraced but then Chinese Commence Minister Bo Xilai visited Ottawa, he was served with a lawsuit, one of the 14 lawsuits Bo got in 13 countries for persecuting Falun Gong. According Wiki-Leak cables, Bo was demoted to Chongqing shortly after because premier Wen Jiabao said the lawsuits against him "negatively impacted the image of China". Wen said Bo should go to Chongqing and retire there. Jiang Zemin clearly knew that few people agreed with his persecution policy. Jiang was very afraid that when he gave up the power, he would be brought to justice. He made a few moves in the top level leadership arrangement in order to continue the persecution. One of them is to promote some people who were heavily involved in persecuting Falun Gong to the core leadership, such as Li Changchun to charge the propaganda and Zhou Yongkank to charge the police, etc. People like BoXilia who is in the news lately as being ousted from office while his wife is charged for the murder of a British business man, was also one of the key people in fueling the murder of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in the organ harvesting campaign. These people, and others as well, rose in power under Jiang Zemin because they agreed to fuel the persecution and had motivation to continue the persecution of Falun Gong for Jiang Zemin even after his retirement. Since 2002, the power struggle of CCP has been centered on Falun Gong issues. One side is Jiang Zemin and his gangs, including Luo Gan, Liu Jing, Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai, who committed genocidal crimes against the Falun Gong group, and the other side is new party secretary Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao, who didn t actively participate in the persecution and are reluctant to continue. So if you want to understand Falun Gong you need to understand that what is happening behind the scenes is a major issue as officials in high positions responsible for the persecution are starting to fall as China is coming to grips with these mass atrocities that have taken place in China. 4
The most important point people need to understand is Falun Gong and the persecution is what will define what happens to China s leadership in the future and those who have been involved in the persecution will be brought to justice and the best way Canada can encourage positive change in china is to support the end of the persecution of Falun Gong. This is not just because it is good for the tens of millions of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners and their families who have been torn apart in China, it is also good for Canada because we want to deal with a country that has basic values for Human Rights. Thank you. References: - For more information about Falun Gong, please visit faluninfo.net - If you want to understand what is happening in China, I encourage you to read Epoch Times more often. It is being referenced and followed by major media in covering these events unfolding in China. [screen shot of the English Epoch Times front page, click on the right bottom button on Chinese Regime in Crisis ] The extensive and in-depth reporting and insightful analysis on the on-going China issue has earned the Epoch Times reputation and dramatic increase of the readership to the Epoch Times online 5
The Epoch Times website traffic jumped from 1 million page views a day to as high as six million while other Chinese newspapers saw their traffic continue at regular rates during news of major upheaval in China as factions within the Chinese Communist Party vie for power. 6